Center for Inquiry - News & Announcementshttp://www.centerforinquiry.net
The latest news and announcements from the CFI home page.enCopyright 20172017-09-20T15:34:30+00:00Cause &amp; Effect: The CFI Newsletter - No. 90http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_90/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_90/#When:15:34ZCause & Effect is the biweekly newsletter of the Center for Inquiry community, covering the wide range of work that you help make possible. Become a member today!

Note: This newsletter will be taking a one-issue break, so look for Cause & Effect No. 91 on October 18. The Richard Dawkins Foundation Newsletter will continue on schedule as usual.

The Top Stories

Blasphemy in the Eye of the Beholder: Free Inquiry on the Blasphemous Arts

Get ready to experience moving, provocative, and often hilarious expressions of religious doubt in the latest issue of Free Inquiry, the leading journal of secular humanist thought, published by CFI’s Council for Secular Humanism.

September 30 is International Blasphemy Rights Day, an occasion established in 2009 by the Center for Inquiry to highlight the global struggle to defend dissent and celebrate the fundamental human right to question, criticize, and even ridicule any idea, belief, or ideology. To mark the occasion, Free Inquiry highlights the blasphemous arts with contributions from two artists, painter Bruce Adams and performance artist Pat Oleszko, as well as some very thought-provoking cover art, with a special (non)appearance from a certain prophet.

For more insight on blasphemy, there is also some heretical fiction from award-winning author John Roberts and a reflection on the utility and ethics of blasphemous speech from ex-Muslim journalist Sara Ali.

All this, plus the second part of the magazine’s “symposium in print” on secular humanism and philosophy, in the October/November 2017 issue of Free Inquiry. Get it on shelves now or by print and digital subscription at secularhumanism.org/fi.

Jeff Sessions and the Junk Science of the Polygraph

According to recent reporting, Attorney General Jeff Sessions (who is unsure whether secular Americans can have an “understanding of the truth”) intends to subject National Security Council staff to a lie detector. But despite what you might see in movies, on television, or even in a local police department, lies cannot be reliably detected by a polygraph test. Federal courts no longer accept their results as evidence, and today they serve an almost theatrical purpose, often used more to frighten than to detect deception.

So last week the Center for Inquiry put out a statement urging the Attorney General to change course. Citing the work of Skeptical Inquirer contributors on the myth of the lie detector, we explained that the polygraph is based on junk science with an error rate of more than 52 percent, no better than a coin toss.

Whether or not Sessions goes through with his threat, it is important that Americans know that the polygraph has no place at the highest levels of government power, and certainly should not be determining who is fit to keep our country safe.

News from the CFI Community

New Richard Dawkins Live Events in L.A., Hartford, and Pittsburgh

We have three brand new opportunities for you to see and hear Richard Dawkins in person this fall, as he engages in unscripted conversation with special guests live on stage for “An Evening with Richard Dawkins.”

October 29: Richard will be hosted by CFI Los Angeles at the Alex Theatre, and he’ll be joined on stage by renowned author Michael Lewis, whose highly acclaimed books include Moneyball, Liar’s Poker, The Big Short, Flash Boys, Boomerang, Losers, and many others, spanning the worlds of Wall Street, professional baseball, and presidential campaigns. You surely will not want to miss this chance to see the sparks and ideas fly between these two sharp, quick-witted, brilliant fellows. Get your tickets right now, before they’re all gone!

November 4: Richard takes a quick trip to the other side of the country for an engagement in Hartford, Connecticut, at the Bushnell. His guest for the evening will be announced soon, but you can still buy your tickets now.

November 7: Tickets will go on sale soon for Richard’s appearance in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University. Stay tuned!

An International Response to the Murder of Gauri Lankesh

Few in the United States had heard of Gauri Lankesh, a respected journalist in India, editor of the Patrike, and fierce activist for free expression and freedom of the press. She strongly opposed the “Hindutva” policies of the Hindu nationalist government led by Narendra Modi, and she organized various conflicting factions to protest caste discrimination.

Lankesh was murdered on September 5, just outside of her home in Bengaluru. The identity of her killers is not yet known, but it is widely believed she was killed for her political advocacy and outspoken criticism of the government. Her murder is frighteningly similar to that of renowned Indian skeptic Narendra Dabholkar in 2013, as well as that of other dissenters in India.

This tragedy brought the Center for Inquiry together with the European Council of Skeptical Organizations (ECSO) for a joint statement to condemn the murder (of course) and to urge more affirmative action by the United States, Canada, and the European Union to defend free expression around the world.

“We’ve lost far too many friends and allies to the violence of religious and ideological extremists around the world,” said Barry Karr, executive director of CFI’s Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in the statement. “But we can’t let the perpetrators get the last word. They want to silence dissent, but we will never be quiet about the fundamental human rights to free expression and inquiry.”

Countdown to CSICon 2017: The Alternative to Alternative Facts

CSICon Las Vegas 2017, the biggest and most exciting skeptics’ event of the year, is almost here! Taking place October 26–29 in the city of illusions itself, with a slate of speakers and events so impressive, you might think we’re just feeding you #fakenews. We understand. It’s hard to tell these days.

Which is exactly why we need CSICon: your alternative to alternative facts.

To keep the anticipation and excitement going, the indefatigable Susan Gerbic brings us two fresh new interviews with CSICon speakers, which are also not #fakenews.

First, science communicator and Forbes contributor Kavin Senapathy talks to Susan about her problem with the pseudoscience-hawking “The Food Babe,” her efforts to demystify GMOs, and how Buffy the Vampire Slayer led the creation of the documentary she’ll be debuting at CSICon with Natalie Newell, Science Moms.

Then, we hear from Evan Bernstein, one of the co-hosts of the popular Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe (SGU) podcast, who discusses the power of radio and podcasts to help foster a community, and previews the special SGU recording happening live on stage at CSICon.

And what else is so great about this CSICon? It will feature brilliant and compelling speakers such as James Randi, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Cara Santa Maria, Michael Mann, Maria Konnikova (pictured at left), Richard Saunders, Eugenie Scott, and so many more. And since it’s all happening at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino, there will be spectacular entertainment events, magic shows, and even a Halloween disco party. (That last one really does sound like #fakenews, but it’s not.)

* Speaking of science deniers, right-wing news outlet The Federalistcriticized CFI’s Joe Nickell for his positive review of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Sequel. Joe, sharply and with considerable class, responds by exposing the myriad holes in their “argument.”

* Benjamin Radford, CFI’s expert on scary clowns, comments on the Juggalo March on Washington, an event for fans of the Insane Clown Posse. Is there any evidence that Juggalos are a “criminal organization”? Do they know how magnets work?

* Jack Jenkins at ThinkProgress reports on the GOP’s passage of an amendment intended to kneecap the Johnson Amendment, allowing churches to more or less become super-PACS for candidates. As before, he cites CFI’s Legal Director Nick Little.

* Susan Gerbic once again takes on “grief vampire” Tyler Henry, this time for the claim that he predicted the death of Alan Thicke by talking to Thicke’s dead relatives. The claim is not convincing.

And of course, you can keep up with news relevant to skeptics and seculars every weekday with The Morning Heresy.

September 27:Zana Zangana discusses his journey away from Islam and the importance of questioning religion in a presentation on his book, Where Was God Hijacked? Violence and Human Rights in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to both the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. The mission of CFI is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Visit CFI on the web at www.centerforinquiry.net.

]]>2017-09-20T15:34+00:00Cause &amp; Effect: The CFI Newsletter - No. 89http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_89/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_89/#When:16:28ZCause & Effect is the biweekly newsletter of the Center for Inquiry community, covering the wide range of work that you help make possible. Become a member today!

The Top Stories

A Trusted Source in an Age of Misinformation

In the era of social media, where we are drowning in news and rumor at all times of the day, information and opinion have been commoditized. When misinformation and uninformed assertions are as easy (or, more likely, easier) to spread as the truth, there is genuine value in being known for reason and honesty. Since its very beginnings four decades ago, the Center for Inquiry has built a firm reputation as a reliable source of information and commentary from all who seek it, and that particularly includes journalists.

Three thoughtful articles in recent weeks serve as excellent examples of how journalists who wish to cut through the noise of false news and “hot takes” know to turn to the people of the Center for Inquiry for trustworthy insight, analysis, and plain old facts—including CFI’s own advocacy and good works.

Last month, religion reporter Kelsey Dallas of the Deseret News took note of two issues affecting the secular community: political representation and religious freedom. CFI is well known as an advocate of true religious freedom, for believers and nonbelievers alike, and have worked passionately to defend those rights in the U.S. and around the world. But like many freethought organizations, we have lost the seat at the table we once had in the previous administration. CFI Legal Director Nicholas Little explains that the experiences and perspectives of nontheists must be a part of the wider struggle for religious freedom.

At The Daily Beast this weekend, reporter and religion scholar Brandon Withrow sought to explore the secular perspective on morality without God. Given the alarming results of a recent study on the ongoing bias against atheists, Withrow asked several key figures in freethought about their moral foundations. Among them were our own Richard Dawkins and, quoted at considerable length, Monette Richards, executive director of CFI Northeast Ohio. (Withrow also spoke to recent Point of Inquiry guest James Croft.)

Finally, this weekend in the Sunday Herald of Scotland, Russell Leadbetter published an important profile of CFI’s Secular Rescue program, our initiative to offer assistance to secular writers and activists whose lives are threatened by violent extremists in countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, and bring them to safety in other countries. Leadbetter looks at the origins of Secular Rescue and highlights some of the lives that the program has helped to save.

CFI Receives Grant for New Projects from James Hervey Johnson Foundation

The Center for Inquiry is honored to be the recipient of a significant grant from the James Hervey Johnson Charitable Educational Trust of San Diego, California. Totaling $112,456, the grant will support CFI’s work on four major projects in publishing, historical preservation and appreciation, and community building, all to further CFI’s mission to foster a secular society based on reason, science, and humanist values.

“This generous grant will help us give new life to deeply meaningful freethought institutions under our care,” said Robyn Blumner, president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. “Each of these four projects will serve to educate, enrich, and enlighten both longtime freethinkers and those who are just discovering our ideas and our community.”

The grant will be distributed between the following four initiatives:

$45,000 will support the publication of The Truth Seeker, America’s oldest continuously published freethought periodical. Since 2014 The Truth Seeker has been owned and operated by the Council for Secular Humanism, publisher ofFree Inquiry magazine and a program of the Center for Inquiry. Under its current editor, Roderick Bradford, The Truth Seeker has emerged as the leading publication exploring the history of the freethought and atheist movements.

$32,456 will help fund a complete redesign of the Freethought Trail, a series of 112 historical sites in west-central New York State significant to the history of freethought, abolition, women’s suffrage, and other radical reform movements. This will include a full updating and redesign ofthe Freethought Trail website, adding enhanced searchability, mobile-friendliness, and new interactive features.

$15,000 will fund necessary improvements to the new physical location for CFI’s active Los Angeles branch.CFI Los Angeles plans to relocate to its new facility in the fall of 2017.

The James Hervey Johnson Charitable Educational Trust was funded from the estate of James Hervey Johnson. Mr. Johnson was the fourth editor of The Truth Seeker, founded by D. M. Bennett in 1873. The Trust has supported the Center for Inquiry and its program the Council for Secular Humanism through multiple grants during the past two decades, this latest being among the largest yet bestowed.

News from the CFI Community

CFI Austin Providing Relief for Houston

The dedicated community of CFI Austin is stepping up to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Last weekend, they delivered relief supplies to fellow Texans in Houston, bringing food, clothing, pillows, sheets, blankets, and toiletries. This week they’re calling upon the greater CFI community to show their support with monetary donations. So far, CFI Austin has raised $700!

You can make donations through PayPal using membership@cfi-austin.org.

They’ll make use of anything they get this week for a food bank in Houston or for flood refugees in Austin. The deadline to donate is Friday, September 8, at midnight.

The Tireless Teaching of TIES

The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES), our program for training middle school science teachers to improve their understanding and teaching of evolution, has had a very productive summer. For example, TIES Director Bertha Vazquez gave several training workshops for teachers at the Opening of Schools Science Teacher Professional Development Day in West Palm Beach, Florida. Plus, two new upcoming workshops have been added to the calendar, bringing TIES’s total up to seventy-three.

September 8, Alan Wasmoen will present at the Nebraska Academy of Sciences/Nebraska Association of Teachers of Science Fall Conference in Kearney, Nebraska. On November 18, Christopher Moran will give a workshop at the Virginia Association of Science Teachers Conference in Roanoke.

This vital and growing program is just getting started, and there’s always something new in the works. To keep up with Bertha’s TIES updates, see her column at CSICOP.org.

Countdown to CSICon 2017: October Cometh!

The leaves are just beginning to change color. Parents across the country are breathing deep sighs of relief as school begins again. Retail stores are (already) hawking Halloween costumes, decorations, and candy. You know what that means…it’s almost time for CSICon 2017!

How “almost” is it? Really almost. CSICon 2017 kicks off October 26 in Las Vegas at the fantastical Excalibur Hotel, going through the weekend to October 29. This year’s conference will feature brilliant and compelling speakers such as James Randi, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Cara Santa Maria, Michael Mann, Maria Konnikova, Richard Saunders (interviewed here by Susan Gerbic), Eugenie Scott, and so many more.

For a taste of what’s in store, check out the latest season of CFI’s Reasonable Talk video series, which is totally devoted to talks from CSICon 2016. But, trust us: a web video is no substitute for being there in person. After all, you want to be there to experience all of the amazing speakers, all the entertainment events, and all the fun and silliness at the Halloween disco party.

CFI Highlights on the Web

On the latest episode of CFI’s flagship podcast Point of Inquiry, host Paul Fidalgo talks to Ethical Culture leader James Croft, grappling with the difficult questions and realizations sparked by the Charlottesville white supremacist violence, and discussing how humanists are called to lead the way in healing our national wounds.

Despite being exposed as a peddler of pseudoscience by everyone from The New Yorker to the U.S. Senate, Dr. Oz carries on. At CSICOP.org, “SkepDoc” Harriet Hall takes aim at one more of Oz’s absurd regimens, the “grapefruit detox diet.” Harriet warns us, “Stay away from the land of Oz.”

Benjamin Radford considers what it seems many so-called “mediums” do not: ethics. As these conduits to the afterlife claim to be able to channel the words of the dead (often dead celebrities), they can never be verified and give little consideration to the impact they have on those still living.

As CFI’s resident expert on evil clowns, Ben also uses the release of the new film adaptation of Stephen King’s It to take the opportunity to look back on the history of Pennywise the clown.

Joe Nickell pays tribute to H. David Sox, who died last month. Sox was a researcher who began promoting the veracity of the Shroud of Turin but came to realize it was a forgery. Writes Joe of his work, “I learned with what intelligence, integrity, and verve [Sox] approached that subject—and so many things that mattered.”

And of course, you can keep up with news relevant to skeptics and seculars every weekday with The Morning Heresy.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to both the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. The mission of CFI is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Visit CFI on the web at www.centerforinquiry.net.

]]>2017-09-06T16:28+00:00Cause &amp; Effect: The CFI Newsletter - No. 88http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_88/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_88/#When:15:16ZCause & Effect is the biweekly newsletter of the Center for Inquiry community, covering the wide range of work that you help make possible. Become a member today!

The Top Story

Confronting Hate with a Humanist Heart

The violence, hatred, and vile bigotry that erupted in Charlottesville earlier this month served as both a shock to the American conscience and as a moment of national moral clarity. White supremacists, including members of the Ku Klux Klan and avowed neo-Nazis, many heavily armed, vented their racist grievances and protested their imaginary persecution by the light of torches while engaging in senseless violence that resulted in the shocking and brutal murder of peaceful counter-protester Heather Heyer.

It was upsetting, to say the least, to discover that even when given several opportunities, our president was unable or unwilling to place full responsibility for the mayhem on the white supremacists, insisting on the fiction that “many sides” or “both sides” were to blame and that many among the neo-Nazis and Klansmen were “very fine people.” It echoed the hollow and infuriating calls to “teach the controversy” about creationism and climate change that secularists are so familiar with, but it was more stunning in its defense of the indefensible. It revealed something dark and dangerous about our country’s current leadership.

Also revealing were the torrent of declarations and condemnations from public figures. Officeholders across the political spectrum were forthright in their denunciations of the white supremacists, with no less than Attorney General Jeff Sessions declaring the violence to be an act of domestic terrorism and promising a significant response from his agency. Business leaders and other high-profile figures walked away from the president’s advisory boards in protest of his false equivalencies, forcing their shuttering.

Among the few remaining at the president’s side continuing to defend his “both sides” fiction about the so-called “alt-left” was President Trump’s cadre of evangelical advisors, such as Jerry Falwell, Jr. The religious right’s unwillingness to fully distance itself from this series of moral outrages is telling, and it serves as a powerful contrast to the responses from the vast majority of faith communities, as well as, of course, our community of nonbelievers.

Attempting to calm a panicked Romeo in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the well-meaning Friar Laurence promises to “give thee armor” to defend himself from his distress: “Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy—To comfort thee….” After the tragedies in Charlottesville, the Center for Inquiry released not just a condemnation of the white supremacists but also some secular humanist “armor,” the “sweet milk” of secular humanist thought on the evils on display.

We provided a crucial reminder to our community that modern secular humanist thinking, particularly from CFI founder Paul Kurtz, arose as a direct response to Nazism and the horrors of the Holocaust. “Nazism has shown the depths of brutality of which humanity is capable,” Kurtz and collaborator Edwin H. Wilson wrote in Humanist Manifesto II in 1973. Throughout the document they make clear, “We [secular humanists] deplore racial, religious, ethnic, or class antagonisms,” envisioning a world in which all human beings are “a citizen of a world community.”

Modern secular humanism, then, is an affirmative lifestance that in its very foundational documents seeks to ennoble all members of the human species, rejecting racism and discrimination outright. It is the opposite of what was espoused by the bigots in Charlottesville, and an unmistakable line in the sand against hate, whereas our current president has swept the line into a formless blur.

In 2015, Eddie Tabash, a veteran champion of civil rights and church-state separation and chair of the board for the Center for Inquiry, wrote a deeply moving piece for Free Inquiry magazine on his experiences as the son of a survivor of Auschwitz. His mother suffered unimaginably at the hands of the Nazis, and the horrors she witnessed are almost unthinkable. Eddie tells her story and how her trauma informed his own moral thinking, contributing to his conclusion that what his mother endured “is inconsistent with what we can justifiably expect from an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent deity.”

There is no room on Planet Earth for that kind of evil, and there can be no tolerance for its latter-day resurgence. It is a moral stance we take as secular humanists and as citizens of the world. And we are reminded of the words of Carl Sagan, who, gazing in awe at the tiny speck that is our home planet engulfed in a sea of blackness, said, “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

News from the CFI Community

Public School Board Meetings Are No Place for Prayer

In 2014, much to our disappointment, the Supreme Court ruled in broad favor of prayers at public legislative meetings at all levels of government in the case of Town of Greece v. Galloway, a decision the Center for Inquiry vehemently protested as a blatant violation of the Establishment Clause. With this as precedent, the battle over government-endorsed religion moves to a venue fraught with even more tension: the public education system.

This week, in a brief filed on behalf of a coalition of secularist organizations, the Center for Inquiry petitioned the Supreme Court to take up the case of American Humanist Association v. Birdville Independent School District, in which the point of contention is whether school board meetings fall under the same rubric as city councils and legislatures when it comes to public prayer, or does a school board’s place in the educational system make prayer untenable.

As you might imagine, our position is that prayer clearly has no place in any government setting, but it is particularly problematic for school board meetings, because the participants in these sessions are not just members of the board but teachers, parents, and even students, all of whom have a crucial role in the shaping of educational policy. Sectarian prayer at such a meeting is plainly coercive and marginalizing to all those who do not subscribe to the particular faith being represented.

“The United States is becoming more religiously diverse with each passing year, and America’s young people even more so,” said CFI’s Nicholas Little, who authored the brief along with CFI Chair Eddie Tabash. “School boards should be concerned with enriching the minds of those students and encouraging them to learn from each other’s differences. The prayers can wait until the business of education is done.”

Skeptical Inquirer: The Slanting of Science and the Fallacy of Fallacies

In the cover feature of the latest issue of Skeptical Inquirer, Jeanne Goldberg explores the roots of anti-science attitudes in American politics and the consequences we face as science and facts become malleable according to partisan interests.

Goldberg explains how the average American can feel intimidated and overwhelmed by science, alienated by the fact that some of our most hot-button issues can be fully understood by distant “elites.” This makes it all the easier for complicated scientific topics of global importance to be twisted into political and tribal signifiers. Writes Goldberg, chillingly, “This constitutes a form of authoritarianism that can be used to impede scientific progress and, in the long run, cause a government to fail.” But it can’t happen here…right?

Also of particular interest, this issue includes a powerful critique of one of skeptics’ most common sets of tools: logical fallacies. Philosopher Maarten Boudry is wary of skeptics’ over-reliance on the “gotcha” tactic of pointing out a logical fallacy in someone’s argument, so he thoroughly unpacks the assertions and implications within many of our community’s favorite go-to fallacies. Boudry reveals many holes in arguments that skeptics often perceive as impermeable, warning, “By carelessly throwing around labels and crying foul at every turn, defenders of science and reason may actually harm their own cause.”

What’s to be done about this overplaying of the fallacy card? Says Boudry, “I’ve now come to believe that this whole idea should be thrown overboard.”

The September/October 2017 issue of Skeptical Inquirer is available now in print and on your favorite mobile platform.

Countdown to CSICon 2017: James Randi’s Amazing Life and Times

As summer begins to wind down, the excitement for CSICon 2017 starts to build exponentially. Taking place October 26–29 in Las Vegas, truly a city of illusions, CSICon is the biggest skeptics event anywhere. This year’s conference will feature speakers such as Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Cara Santa Maria, Joe Nickell, Eugenie Scott, and so many more.

Joining them for the second year running will of course be James “The Amazing” Randi. Last year at CSICon 2016, Randi took the stage with Skeptical Inquirer Editor Kendrick Frazier for a live and lively conversation about Randi’s truly remarkable life and times, his adventures in magic, skepticism, and activism, and his hopes for the future of the movement.

Of course, a web video is no substitute for the real thing. So make your plans to get to Vegas right now and register for CSICon 2017. You’ll see Randi in person, the huge roster of great speakers, fun entertainment events, and even a Halloween disco party. Not kidding.

Did you get a chance to see the eclipse? In a web exclusive for Free Inquiry, Gregory J. Paul looks at how this celestial spectacle, despite the claims of some believers, has no bearing on the question of God’s existence.

The JonBenet Ramsey murder was never officially solved, even though alleged psychics claimed to put their best paranormal efforts toward it. In Skeptical Inquirer, Joe Nickell shows not only how the psychics blew it but what probably actually happened to JonBenet.

Daniel Dennett opens the discussion in the most recent Free Inquiry’s symposium-in-print on the importance of naturalism in secular humanism, describing philosophy as an intellectual Las Vegas. “What happens in philosophy stays in philosophy, by and large, and a good thing it does, too.”

The Center for Inquiry’s president and CEO, Robyn Blumner, heralds the increase in academic scholarship and scientific research to explain the roots of religious belief. “By understanding the cognitive components that make religion so intractable,” she writes, “we may develop social and psychological tools to loosen its grip.”

Also in Free Inquiry,Sarah Haider critiques what she describes as the “noble lies” told by progressives who seek to shield Muslims from abuse but wind up excusing or obscuring the harmful and violent aspects of extreme versions of Islam.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to both the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. The mission of CFI is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Visit CFI on the web at www.centerforinquiry.net.

]]>2017-08-23T15:16+00:00Cause &amp; Effect: The CFI Newsletter - No. 87http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_87/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_87/#When:16:13ZCause & Effect is the biweekly newsletter of the Center for Inquiry community, covering the wide range of work that you help make possible. Become a member today!

The Main Events

Secular Organizations Tell Trump: Give Us Our Seat at the Table

In February of 2010, the Obama administration hosted a policy briefing between White House officials and leaders of the nontheist/secular movement. The Center for Inquiry was represented there by the Council for Secular Humanism. It was a history-making event, for after decades of being politically untouchable, this was the first time a presidential administration had welcomed the freethought movement for an exchange of views. While there were some crucial differences of opinion in policy and comportment between the secular movement and the Obama administration, the White House would become increasingly open to meaningful and substantive interactions with our community throughout the Obama presidency.

In 2017, the gates have been closed and the connections have been cut. The Trump administration has ignored all attempts at communication by the secular movement, wholly disregarding a joint letter welcoming the new president and inviting the administration to continue the previous administration’s record of engagement with the nontheist community.

More importantly, in the space of seven months the current administration has aggressively pursued a policy agenda bent on undermining church-state separation and placing religious belief (specifically Christian religious belief) above the law. The Trump White House has sought to turn churches into super-PACs for the religious right’s favored candidates, reinforce the false notion that patriotism requires a belief in God, create a de facto religious test for entry into the country, and severely roll back protections for vulnerable populations such as religious minorities and the LGBTQ community.

As a case in point, just two weeks ago President Trump declared (seemingly out of the blue) that transgender Americans would be banned from serving in the U.S. military “in any capacity whatsoever.” Like so many other moves, it was a blatant pander to the most zealous fringes of the religious right that make up the president’s base. (See our response to the ban here.)

Now that the Trump administration has shown itself to be carrying out the wishes of the evangelical right and to be hostile to nonbelievers and religious minorities, the Center for Inquiry has partnered with the Secular Coalition for America, American Atheists, and the American Humanist Association for a joint statement calling out the White House for its unwillingness to engage with the representatives of the largest “religious group” in the United States, the unaffiliated.

The statement includes important messages from the leaders of each of the represented organizations. Robyn Blumner, CFI’s president and CEO, had this to say:

In an attempt to respect the office of the presidency and work constructively with those with whom we may disagree, the secular community reached out to President Trump to open a dialogue. Rather than greet that gesture as an opportunity, Trump ignored it and has gone on to question the patriotism of nonbelievers. When fealty to the president is the only yardstick by which one’s patriotism is measured, as it is in this administration, we happily fail that test. The nonreligious, humanists, and atheists, make up a significant proportion of America’s citizenry. That Trump finds us unworthy speaks volumes about him.

While there may be little in the way of lines of communication between secularists and the current administration, the Center for Inquiry will continue to work passionately for policies based on reason, science, and humanist values, and we will remain open to working with the White House when and if they choose to join us in this cause.

We will not, however, be holding our breath.

The Many Lives of Joe Nickell

“He dreamed of becoming a lot of things, and he became most of them.”

For anyone, this would be a wonderful way to be described, and it should be no surprise that this characterization refers specifically to CFI’s own Joe Nickell in a lengthy and fascinating profile by the UK’s Daily Mail.

The article by Jordan Gass-Poore covers Joe’s formative years, from when he was eight years old and had turned his room into a crime lab, through his experiences as a magician and private detective, and into the field that has earned him worldwide renown, the scientific investigation of claims of the paranormal.

With a wealth of anecdotes from Joe’s adventures and a collection of delightful photos that span a colorful career, the piece makes an important point about Joe’s point of view as an investigator, saying, “Nickell has gained international attention for being a ‘fair-minded investigator.’” As Joe says in the article, “It’s not my job to explain that there’s no ghosts. I don’t feel like I have to wrestle someone to the ground and beat on them the scientific knowledge.”

Joe also recounts the long-standing resistance within skepticism to the investigation of religious claims. Said Joe, “I came along and said, ‘No, the Shroud of Turin, the weeping icons, the faith healing miracles—those are important to look at and they deserve to be criticized and examined in the same way that any other claim but you do it with respect.’”

Despite Cancellation, Dawkins Is Coming to the Berkeley Area

Berkeley, California, radio station KPFA sparked waves of outrage and debate last month when it suddenly cancelled a scheduled public event for Richard Dawkins, at which he would discuss his new book Science of the Soul. The organizers claimed to have just been made aware of Prof. Dawkins’s views on Islam (which were fairly well known to pretty much everyone else, and surely didn’t stop them from hosting a Dawkins event in 2015) and without warning or discussion with Dawkins, unceremoniously alerted ticket holders that the event had been scrapped.

Prof. Dawkins attempted to reach out to KPFA to no avail, many news outlets covered the controversy, and several high-profile scientists, scholars, and writers from across the ideological and theological spectrum spoke out against KPFA’s decision and in defense of Richard Dawkins.

The KPFA event was to take place August 9, the day this very issue of Cause & Effect reaches inboxes and web browsers. Happily, people in the Berkeley area will still be able to attend an event with Prof. Dawkins, as he will now be appearing tonight (August 9) at the Book Passage bookstore in Corte Madera, California. As of this writing, only standing room tickets remain available. Given all that has occurred, what was already going to be a fascinating event should now be all the more interesting and enlightening.

CSICon 2017: The Waiting Is the Hardest Part

CSICon 2017 is so close and yet so far. Kicking off October 26, now’s the time to make sure you’re registered and work out all your travel arrangements to get out to Vegas in time for the event.

But it’s also really hard to have to wait so long for all the amazingly brilliant speakers, the ridiculously fun events, and all the wonder and weirdness of Las Vegas. Waiting for CSICon is enough to drive anyone CSICotic! (I’m so very sorry.)

Luckily, we’re filling those weeks with great video content from last year’s CSICon and brand-new interviews with many of this year’s speakers.

Also on Reasonable Talk, parapsychology expert James Alcock discusses how humans have evolved to make associations between events with no actual connection (which manifests in the belief in the power of prayer, for example), and how critical thinking skills come very late into the picture.

Meanwhile, Susan Gerbic (who has been doing true yeoman’s work for this project) brings us five new exclusive interviews with CSICon 2017 speakers:

Now you should have plenty to keep you busy until October: planning your trip and enjoying all of this great skeptic insight. If you’re not already, get yourself registered, and we’ll see you at the Excalibur.

Celebrating Summer, Secularly

Beautiful sunny weather greeted the attendees of CFI Michigan’s 11th Annual Secular Summer Retreat in July. CFI members from across the Midwest enjoyed camping classics: s’mores, campfires, fantastic home-cooked food, and the wonders of the great outdoors while kayaking, biking, and hiking. Younger campers (as well as some “big kids”) thoroughly enjoyed making their own stomp rockets and salt paintings, which was followed by a camp-wide scavenger hunt. In the afternoon, the Water Challenge helped everyone cool off with plenty of water balloons for everyone.

Kahler Sweeney, who is interning with CFI Michigan for the summer, told us what it was like to be there. “It was amazing to see first-time attendees relish their ‘first contact’ as they were welcomed into the larger secular community, and to watch returning guests re-unite with friends from previous years,” said Kahler. “I really enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of the CFI Community!”

Congratulations on another successful retreat, Michiganders, and thanks to Kahler for the report from the field.

CFI Highlights on the Web

In June, CFI sounded the alarm about a scheme in the U.S. House to kill the Johnson Amendment through the appropriations process, forbidding the IRS from investigating any potential violations. At ThinkProgress, Jack Jenkins thoroughly reports on the machinations behind the scenes, as Republicans look to turn churches into “dark money” campaign operations. CFI’s legal director, Nick Little, provides background and insight.

Nick Little is also author of a new special report for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, titled, simply, “Homeopathy Is a Sham.” Nick makes clear that if manufacturers and retailers don’t adhere to regulations in the marketing of homeopathic fake medicine, CFI will be ready to take legal action.

The good folks at CFI Michigan get coverage at MLive for their volunteer work with the Healthy Homes Coalition.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to both the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. The mission of CFI is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Visit CFI on the web at www.centerforinquiry.net.

]]>2017-08-09T16:13+00:00Cause &amp; Effect: The CFI Newsletter - No. 86http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_86/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_86/#When:18:41ZCause & Effect is the biweekly newsletter of the Center for Inquiry community, covering the wide range of work that you help make possible. Become a member today!

The Main Events

Berkeley’s KPFA Abruptly Cancels Dawkins Event

Last Wednesday, the Royal Society released the results of a poll that placed The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins atop a list of the most influential science books of all time, a list that includes in its top ten such foundational and revolutionary works as Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

Well, according to a message to ticket holders, KPFA claims to have been unaware of Dawkins’s “views” and considered his comments on Islam to be “offensive” and “hurtful.” (Funny, the station had hosted Prof. Dawkins in 2015 and didn’t seem bothered at the time by his well known criticism of religion, including Islam, Christianity, ` and other faiths.

CFI provided its own public response, lamenting KPFA’s decision and the baseless justification proffered for it. “We understand the difference between a people and the beliefs they may hold,” said CFI’s president and CEO, Robyn Blumner. “All of us must be free to debate and criticize ideas and harmful ideas must be exposed. It is incredibly disappointing that KPFA does not understand this.”

But the clearest and most compelling response came from Prof. Dawkins himself, in an open letter to KPFA. He wrote of his long admiration for KPFA’s journalism, and his decades of support of their work. The cancellation of the August event was “a matter of personal sorrow” for him.

At the core of the conflict, Dawkins pointed out, was the lack of reason and critical thinking that went into the station’s decision to break its commitment. He wrote in his letter:

You conspicuously did not quote a source when accusing me of “abusive speech”. Why didn’t you check your facts – or at least have the common courtesy to alert me – before summarily cancelling my event? If you had consulted me, or if you had done even rudimentary fact-checking, you would have concluded that I have never used abusive speech against Islam.

I have called IslamISM “vile” but surely you, of all people, understand that Islamism is not the same as Islam. I have criticised the ridiculous pseudoscientific claims made by Islamic apologists (“the sun sets in a marsh” etc), and the opposition of Islamic “ scholars” to evolution and other scientific truths. I have criticised the appalling misogyny and homophobia of Islam, I have criticised the murdering of apostates for no crime other than their disbelief. Far from attacking Muslims, I understand – as perhaps you do not – that Muslims themselves are the prime victims of the oppressive cruelties of Islamism, especially Muslim women.

I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that. Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticise Christianity but not Islam?

Since news of the cancellation broke, a number of leading figures in science and reason have made their voices heard in support of Dawkins. Jerry Coyne called the move “craven”; Steven Pinker told KPFA that “you have handed a precious gift to the political right”; Vilayanur S. Ramachandran called Dawkins “the most intellectually honest and courageous person I know”; and Daniel Dennett (in such a way that only he can successfully pull off) tweeted, “Shame on these Know-nothing Pathetic Fraidy-cat, um, folks!” You can read these responses in full at the Richard Dawkins Foundation website.

In a special message to CFI supporters, Board Chair Eddie Tabash said, “Richard is a kind man, even in the face of unfounded criticism. However, kindness cannot deter us from fighting as hard as we can against this severely troubling action by KPFA.”

Bertha Vazquez Publishes Schools’ Evolution Evaluation

It is 2017, and yet the teaching of evolution in public schools remains a flashpoint of controversy. The enduring resistance to evolution education is a primary reason for the existence of TIES, the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science, a program of the Richard Dawkins Foundation that trains middle school science teachers to teach evolution.

Leading the work of TIES is Florida middle school science teacher Bertha Vazquez, and as part of her important work for the program, she has been evaluating state evolution education standards throughout the U.S. Her findings have just been published in a new paper for the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach. The results are fascinating and trending in a positive direction.

Bertha’s evaluation looks at school evolution standards using a ten-point scale based on five categories of questions, which determine each state’s grade. For example, New York and Florida are among the states that received an A grade for earning the maximum number of points for meeting certain benchmarks such as providing a clear definition of evolution, presenting several kinds of evidence for evolution, and so on. South Carolina and Tennessee, however, are two states that received F’s because their curricula don’t even mention or define evolution to middle schoolers, among other issues.

If the study had a “winner,” it would be New Hampshire. “New Hampshire should not be commended just for its middle school standards on evolution,” writes Bertha. “It starts incorporating evolution into the curriculum earlier than any other state.”

Point of Inquiry...IN SPACE!!!

When will humans set foot on Mars? What are the prospects for NASA in the Trump era? And what exactly did Mike Pence touch that he clearly wasn’t supposed to? All these burning questions and more are answered in the latest episode of CFI’s long-running flagship podcast Point of Inquiry.

Host Paul Fidalgo is joined by Loren Grush, space reporter for The Verge, for a fun and enlightening conversation about the drama, politics, and technological challenges of space exploration. Grush brings both passionate enthusiasm and healthy skepticism to her coverage of space, providing sharp analysis of the private space industry, public attitudes toward space exploration, and the hostility that women in the space community continue to face.

And of course, we’ll find out if the vice president ruined something expensive.

There’s more space-talk in the next episode of Point of Inquiry coming later this week, when the subject turns to extraterrestrial life, so be sure to subscribe free on iTunes, Google Play, or through your podcast service of choice.

Countdown to CSICon 2017: New Videos with Paul Offit and Joe Nickell

For several weeks now, CFI’s video series Reasonable Talk has been bringing you some of the excellent presentations that made CSICon 2016 such a fantastic event. We have two more for you, hot off the servers, all in a blatant effort to inspire you to get registered for CSICon 2017 this October 26–29 in Las Vegas!

Paul Offit is a leading light in science and skepticism for his work as a life-saving virologist and as a bestselling critic of the anti-vaccine movement and other kinds of fake medicine. In his CSICon 2016 presentation, Offit takes a critical look at the medical profession itself, going back centuries to see how opioids have been used and misused by physicians and patients and showing how the over-prescription of painkillers has enabled today’s opioid crisis.

CFI’s own Joe Nickell is the world’s best known investigator of the paranormal, with decades of experience uncovering the truth about claims of ghost sightings, UFO encounters, psychic powers, and more. But what also sets Joe apart is his compassion and empathy for those who believe they have had these supernatural experiences and his steadfast devotion to the pursuit of the truth over merely proving someone wrong. In his presentation, Joe discusses the crucial distinction between “investigation” and “debunking.”

Now it’s your turn to investigate all the goings-on at the next big event, CSICon 2017. Incredible speakers and exciting entertainment await at Las Vegas’s Excalibur Hotel and Casino. But don’t take these claims at face value. Investigate them yourself and get registered now.

CFI Highlights on the Web

Craig A. Foster, a professor of psychology at the U.S. Air Force Academy who has contributed to Skeptical Inquirer, writes an op-ed in The Denver Post welcoming the sudden attention given to Flat Earthers. Touting his membership with CFI’s Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, he asserts that Flat-Earthers present a prime opportunity to discuss the importance of applying critical thinking to outlandish beliefs.

Marking the 70th anniversary of the Roswell UFO sightings, Kendrick Frazier, editor of Skeptical Inquirer, writes in a piece for the Albuquerque Journal about how the story has managed to endure all these decades, concluding, “Established facts of the Roswell incident will of course never catch up with the charming myth.”

For a short while in recent weeks, it seemed to many that the mystery of Amelia Earhart had been solved. But as Benjamin Radford points out in a special report, the claims were laughably easy to disprove and show us how the History Channel, which promoted the finding, went “spectacularly off the rails.”

For his latest Unco Junto “blog symposium,” Ben assembles Michael Hartwell, Ian Harris, and Celestia Ward (taking part in web-comic form) to weigh in on the topic of hypocrisy.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to both the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. The mission of CFI is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Visit CFI on the web at www.centerforinquiry.net.

By now, you’ve probably heard the stunning news that my friend and colleague on the board of CFI, Professor Richard Dawkins, has been summarily de-platformed by KPFA, a radio station in Berkeley, California. KPFA not only canceled a standing engagement to have Richard speak on his new book, Science in the Soul: Selected Writings of a Passionate Rationalist, but did so without contacting him first, or giving him the opportunity to respond to their unfounded allegations.

Instead, KPFA, which by the way had hosted Richard in 2015, contacted the ticket holders, unjustly contending that this respected evolutionary biologist had engaged in “abusive speech” against Islam. It is not abusive to criticize a religion’s tenets and ideas. Prof. Dawkins is a responsible and insightful critic of all religions, including Islam, Christianity, and other faiths.

Richard, in his inimitable way, responded thoughtfully in an email to KPFA:

Dear KPFA,

I used to love your station when I lived in Berkeley for two years, shortly after that beloved place had become the iconic home of free speech. I listened to KPFA almost every day during those years, and I regularly contributed to your fundraising drives, grateful for your objective reporting and humane commentary while I participated in the People’s Park and Vietnam war demonstrations. It was therefore a matter of personal sorrow to me to receive this morning your truly astonishing “justification” for de-platforming me.

My memory of KPFA is that you were unusually scrupulous about fact-checking. I especially admired your habit of always quoting sources. You conspicuously did not quote a source when accusing me of “abusive speech”. Why didn’t you check your facts — or at least have the common courtesy to alert me — before summarily cancelling my event? If you had consulted me, or if you had done even rudimentary fact-checking, you would have concluded that I have never used abusive speech against Islam. I have called IslamISM “vile” but surely you, of all people, understand that Islamism is not the same as Islam. I have criticised the ridiculous pseudoscientific claims made by Islamic apologists (“the sun sets in a marsh” etc), and the opposition of Islamic “scholars” to evolution and other scientific truths. I have criticised the appalling mysogyny and homophobia of Islam, I have criticised the murdering of apostates for no crime other than their disbelief. Far from attacking Muslims, I understand — as perhaps you do not — that Muslims themselves are the prime victims of the oppressive cruelties of Islamism, expecially Muslim women.

I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that. Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticise Christianity but not Islam?

You say I use “abusive speech” about Islam. I would seriously – I mean it – like to hear what examples of my “abusive speech” you had in mind. When you fail to discover any, I presume you will issue a public apology, which I will of course accept in a spirit of gratitude for what KPFA once was. And could become again.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Dawkins

As you can see, Richard is a kind man, even in the face of unfounded criticism. However, kindness cannot deter us from fighting as hard as we can against this severely troubling action by KPFA. Who will be unfairly painted with bigotry next?

It is through questioning and unfettered debate that humanity has made the advancements we value.

KPFA’s stance is like the justification nations use to defend their blasphemy laws. Yet, as we know, blasphemy laws around the world serve two basic purposes: to insulate bad ideas and backward ideologies as well as persecute nonbelievers or a minority faith. Here at CFI, we have spent more than forty years fighting blasphemy laws while promoting the core values of reason and science. When we criticize religion, we don’t criticize nonviolent religious people. We also don’t criticize religious people who don’t try to forcibly impose their views on others. The victims of religious dogma are often people of that same faith, and we unfailingly champion their equal rights.

Now it’s time for all of us to stand up for Richard Dawkins. Please join me in supporting CFI and its important work, which, as you probably know, now includes the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science.

Please donate today, to send a message to all who want to stifle the free exchange of ideas. I will lead the way with a considerable matching donation, so your gift will go twice as far.

Click here to donate right now, and I will match your gift up to a total of $100,000. Together, we will stand up to the bullies who want to silence one of the world’s greatest science educators and one of its most sensible defenders of a reality-based worldview.

]]>2017-07-25T17:35+00:00Cause &amp; Effect: The CFI Newsletter - No. 85http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_85/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_85/#When:15:47ZCause & Effect is the biweekly newsletter of the Center for Inquiry community, covering the wide range of work that you help make possible. Become a member today!

The Main Events

House Committee Schemes to Let Churches Evade Electioneering Law

When Donald Trump was courting the religious conservative vote during the 2016 presidential campaign, one of the prizes he offered them was the repeal of the Johnson Amendment, the provision of federal law that prevents churches and other tax-exempt organizations (such as this one) from endorsing or opposing political candidates. Though he vowed to “totally destroy” the amendment, so far he has only been able to soften it, and mostly symbolically, through an executive order signed in May.

The fact remains, however, that the Johnson Amendment is quite popular, with well over two-thirds of the public in support, including over half of white evangelicals, because they understand that churches don’t belong in the business of electioneering, nor do they want to see their houses of worship turning into political action committees. This is really a project of the extreme religious right, which would like to use churches as a means of bankrolling their favored candidates.

How then could Republicans help Trump make good on his promise to “destroy” the Amendment? On June 29, GOP members of the House Financial Services subcommittee inserted language into the 2018 appropriations bill saying that Congress would deny the IRS the necessary funds to investigate any potential violations of the Johnson Amendment…on the part of churches. Secular nonprofits aren’t mentioned. In fact, while the law change would apply to all houses of worship, the political intent was telegraphed by the failure to mention any places of worship other than churches.

This sneaky attempt at a “backdoor” repeal of the Johnson Amendment through the congressional budget process did not go unnoticed. The Center for Inquiry joined a coalition of organizations from across the political and theological spectrum urging Congress to reject this attempt to defang the Johnson Amendment, sounding the alarm about what this House committee was up to, and CFI quickly got word to the press.

As a result, the Associated Press ran an excellent report on the scheme, which featured expert commentary from CFI Legal Director Nick Little, who made clear who this was intended to benefit. “All they care about is the Christian groups, and in particular, it will end up as the extreme religious right Christian groups,” said Nick. “If this goes through, this would add just another way in which unregulated dark money could be used.” Newsweek also featured Nick in its coverage of the story.

Unfortunately, the measure survived its subcommittee markup, and this Thursday it heads to the full House Appropriations Committee, so this fight is far from over.

Video: Joe Nickell Talks to Vox about Ghosts

Belief in ghosts, the disembodied spirits of those who have passed on, is seemingly intractable. Forty-five percent of Americans say they believe in ghosts, and speculation about the afterlife goes all the way back to the beginnings of human culture.

But if anyone can begin to move the needle toward reason, it just might be Joe Nickell.

Joe Nickell is of course senior research fellow for CFI’s Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and the world’s foremost evidence-based investigator of the paranormal. This week, he was the star of a video for Vox on what causes people to believe they’ve encountered a ghost and the reality-based explanations for these experiences.

“Not only have I never found a single case that I thought was proof of a ghost,” Joe tells Vox reporter Dean Peterson, “neither has science.”

But what sets Joe apart from many other “debunkers” of the paranormal is his compassion and empathy for those who think they have truly had these otherworldly experiences. Joe says they “all have to do with our hopes and our fears,” adding, “The ghost idea … is powerful, because who doesn’t have an instance in which he or she would say, I just wish I could have told my mother that one thing.”

Free Inquiry and Daniel Dennett Present a “Symposium in Print” on Naturalism

Naturalism, simply put, holds that all things arise from natural causes and that the supernatural need never be invoked in the quest for knowledge or meaning. While to many in the freethought community this is a statement of the obvious, in the world of philosophy—particularly secular humanist philosophy—naturalism’s role is both consequential and complex. What better way to explore this important topic than in the pages of Free Inquiry magazine?

The latest issue of Free Inquiry features a “symposium in print” on naturalism’s centrality in secular humanism, led by the inimitable Daniel Dennett. The renowned philosopher discusses the intractability of supernaturalism in philosophical discourse, but notes that its impact is minimal owing to philosophy’s place as “the Las Vegas of inquiry,” because what happens in philosophy stays in philosophy.

This special symposium includes substantive and deeply researched essays from Australian philosopher Russell Blackford, Acadia University’s Stephen Maitzen, Barbara Forrest of Southeastern Louisiana University, and a combined effort from Scott Aikin, Thomas Dabay, and Robert B. Talisse of Vanderbilt University.

The August/September 2017 issue also features opinion and commentary from Ex-Muslim activist Sarah Haider, psychologist and author Valerie Tarico, CFI President and CEO Robyn Blumner, and much more. You can subscribe to Free Inquiry in print or on the web at secularhumanism.org/fi.

As the skeptosphere gears up for CSICon 2017 in Las Vegas, CFI’s video series Reasonable Talk offers two brand new presentations from CSICon 2016. Together, these two talks answer fundamental questions for the skeptical movement: Where did we come from and what are we doing here?

Theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss tackles the question of our origins: Not just of the skeptic community or even of humans as a whole but of the entire cosmos. In an engaging, funny, and enlightening talk, Krauss shows how today’s experiments in physics back up the theories of how everything came into being. Krauss, an honorary member of CFI’s board of directors, will return for CSICon 2017.

As to what it is we’re all doing here, we turn to CFI’s former president and CEO, Ronald Lindsay. In this important presentation, Ron takes a broad look at the aims of the skeptic movement and eloquently illustrates why this work is so vital. Skepticism, says Ron, serves as a crucial bridge of understanding between the scientific community and the general public, sifting the facts from the fantastical and encouraging critical thinking from everyone.

Of course, you’ll want to see all of this year’s talks in person! CSICon 2017, taking place October 26–29 in Las Vegas, will be the biggest skeptics’ event of the year, with an incredible lineup of speakers including the amazing James Randi, Richard Dawkins, Eugenie Scott, Cara Santa Maria, Michael Mann, Richard Wiseman, Massimo Polidoro, Carrie Poppy, and once again serving as master of ceremonies, comic-musician George Hrab.

Held in the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, you’ll also get to experience a Tournament of Kings Joust Dinner, a magic show by Banachek, special lunch events with skeptic stars, a Halloween 70’s Disco Party (not a typo), a Sunday Papers session, and so much more. Get registered now.

CFI Highlights on the Web

With the release of Hulu’s television version of The Handmaid’s Tale, CFI Los Angeles’s Jim Underdownnotes the similarities between the oppressive fictional state of Gilead and the real Church of Scientology, which, Jim notes, also happens to include the show’s star Elizabeth Moss among its members.

The Xbox Kinect is a piece of camera and sensor technology intended for enhanced kinds of video game playing, but did you know it could also help hunt for ghosts? Actually, it can’t, as Kenny Biddle explains at CSICOP.org.

TV psychic Tyler Henry appeared to make some pretty startling connections during a reading on his show, but Susan Gerbic lays out all the ways that this “grief vampire” could have made lucky guesses, gotten the information in advance, and been helped out a great deal by editing.

Joe Nickell looks back to a version of alternative medicine that vied for prominence in the nineteenth century, “Eclecticism” (which is a good marketing name).

CFI’s master librarian Tim Binga reveals a very cool addition to the library’s collection. Donated by Douglas Kinney, it’s a signed and framed photo of the amazing James Randi with the late Martin Gardner, “the father of modern skepticism.”

And of course, you can keep up with news relevant to skeptics and seculars every weekday with The Morning Heresy.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to both the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. The mission of CFI is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Visit CFI on the web at www.centerforinquiry.net.

]]>2017-07-12T15:47+00:00Cause &amp; Effect: The CFI Newsletter - No. 84http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_84/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_84/#When:14:50ZCause & Effect is the biweekly newsletter of the Center for Inquiry community, covering the wide range of work that you help make possible. Become a member today!

The Main Events

Supreme Court Reshapes the Church-State Landscape

American secularism suffered a painful blow on Monday, when the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer that the state of Missouri did not have the right to exclude a church from a state grant program to fund the purchase of recycled tires for resurfacing playgrounds. The Court split 7-2 in favor of the church, with Justices Kagan and Breyer joining the five conservatives.

Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, used particularly strong language to explain the decision, writing, “...the exclusion of Trinity Lutheran from a public benefit for which it is otherwise qualified, solely because it is a church, is odious to our Constitution ... and cannot stand.”

Justice Sotomayor, who was joined by Justice Ginsburg in the minority, pointed out that the preschool playground was as much a part of the church’s religious mission as any other part of the property, and that this decision gives an unfair advantage to a belief system that happens to have the resources to compete for these kinds of public grants.

But the core message of her dissent was clear. “The Court today profoundly changes that relationship by holding, for the first time, that the Constitution requires the government to provide public funds directly to a church,” she wrote. “Its decision slights both our precedents and our history, and its reasoning weakens this country’s longstanding commitment to a separation of church and state beneficial to both.”

We agree. In our response to the news, CFI Legal Director Nicholas Little said, plainly, “The Supreme Court has detonated a massive breach in the wall of separation between church and state.” He went on to say, “We are deeply concerned about what happens next, as other sectarian organizations find new and novel ways to siphon taxpayer dollars into their churches, temples, and mosques.”

But the drama didn’t end there. The Court also announced it would take up the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, in which a shop owner refused to provide service to a same-sex couple because of his religious beliefs. We’ll be participating in a formal capacity with an amicus brief soon, but for now we urged the Court to see reason and remember when religious beliefs could be used to discriminate against many other groups of people. As Nick warned, “This so-called ‘right’ to discriminate based on religion cannot be cabined, and threatens to turn America back to the dark days of legally justifiable segregation.”

Turkey to Prohibit the Teaching of Evolution in Schools

Since the establishment of the Republic of Turkey almost a century ago, secularism has been a foundational component; there is no official state religion, and the Turkish constitution provides for freedom of religion. But the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has carried out an agenda of “Islamisation” and gone to great lengths to silence dissent and control information.

The Erdoğan government took another frightening step away from secularism last week with a move that will have implications for generations. Alpaslan Durmus, head of the curriculum board of Turkey’s Education Ministry, announced that students would no longer be taught the subject of evolution in schools, claiming this fundamental scientific concept to be “beyond [students’] comprehension” and “too controversial.”

In our official response, CFI President and CEO Robyn Blumner described this assertion as “absurd” and a denigration of the intelligence and capabilities of Turkey’s students and teachers. Referencing the Richard Dawkins Foundation’s TIES program (Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science), Robyn said, “We know from our work with middle school science teachers that students pretty easily grasp the basic principles of evolution. Moreover, learning about natural selection—the process that undergirds the diversity of all of life on Earth—fascinates and inspires students. How can the government even consider withholding that from students?”

Our own Richard Dawkins weighed in as well, pulling no punches. “As Turkish scientists will agree, evolution is an established fact, as firmly established as plate tectonic movements or the solar orbits of the planets,” he said. “I’d like to pay the Turkish framers of this ridiculous education policy the compliment of assuming that they are cynical political manipulators. But actually, I fear they are more likely to be just plain stupid.”

It may now be up to the students, teachers, and parents of Turkey to demand educational standards that will not leave a generation of young people behind the rest of the world.

News from the CFI Community

Raheel Raza Speaks Against FGM at UN Human Rights Council

At the UN Human Rights Council’s meeting in Geneva last week, the Center for Inquiry was ably represented by activist Raheel Raza. Raza, president of the Council for Muslims Facing Tomorrow, delivered a powerful statement on the horrific practice of female genital mutilation (FGM), and how this practice is not merely a phenomenon of parts of Africa and the Middle East:

More than half a million women and girls are at risk of undergoing FGM in the U.S. or abroad, or have already undergone the procedure, including 166,173 under the age of 18. It is unacceptable that today in the 21st century women have to undergo such an inhuman and painful procedure, especially if they are too young to protest. … The human rights of those who are unable to protest must be protected by those of us who can.

Our thanks to Raheel for raising important issues and representing CFI before the international community.

CFI Poland Promotes Humanist Values in Meetings with EU Officials

Last Monday in Brussels, Andrzej Dominiczak of CFI Poland took part in a high-level meeting with vice president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans and vice president of the European Parliament Mairead McGuinness. Dominiczak was among three other European humanists (from Germany, Denmark, and Italy), and joined representatives of other similar non-governmental organizations.

They had come to discuss the general topic of “The Future of Europe: A Values-Based and Effective Union,” and many specific issues were raised and discussed. Dominiczak spoke about the social and psychological conditions that can foster constructive values and emphasized the role of education and direct communication between the European Union and its citizens.

Most importantly, Dominiczak held direct conversations with both high officials about the possibility for the adoption of a new binding EU directive to prevent and combat violence against women. Both officials agreed on the importance of such a measure and that it would be politically possible, citing the 2011 Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Dominiczak told us how important this issue is from the Polish point of view, explaining that Poland’s current regime has threatened to revoke the convention. Working with the Women’s Rights Center about three years ago, he conducted a large study showing that the number of women in Poland who die as a result of domestic violence is triple what had been previously believed.

Dominiczak and the EU Parliament’s McGuinness agreed to continue discussions about a directive to address this, and we look forward to hearing about the developments.

CSICon 2017: It’s Coming Right For Us!!! (Plus Two New Videos)

CSICon 2017, the biggest skeptics’ event of the year, is hurtling like an asteroid toward the City of Illusions, Las Vegas, and it’s set to collide for an impact event lasting October 26–29, threatening to eradicate all pseudoscience in its blast radius. Or so it’s been prophesied.

To give you a fresh idea of the brilliant and engaging talks you can expect, CFI’s Reasonable Talk web series has posted two new presentations from CSICon 2016:

First, “SkepDoc” Harriet Hall clears up the murkiness surrounding the world of “functional medicine,” a practice with little to no evidence of efficacy and no solid definition of what it actually means.

As for CSICon 2017, the lineup of speakers is once again earth-shaking, including such cosmic personalities as the amazing James Randi, Richard Dawkins, Eugenie Scott, Cara Santa Maria, Michael Mann, Richard Wiseman, Lawrence Krauss, Massimo Polidoro, Carrie Poppy, and once again serving as master of ceremonies, the great George Hrab.

Set your coordinates for the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, where you’ll also experience a Tournament of Kings Joust Dinner, a magic show by Banachek, special lunch events with skeptic stars, a Halloween 70’s Disco Party (we’re still debating the wisdom of that one), a Sunday Papers session, and so much more.

CFI Highlights on the Web

In a special report, Benjamin Radford looks at the context for the controversy surrounding NBC’s Megyn Kelly and her primetime interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of Infowars. “Ideally, the best way to treat these people [like Jones] would be to ignore them,” writes Ben, “but in practice that’s often counterproductive.”

CFI Research Fellow and former CEO Ronald Lindsay is the guest on the New Books Network podcast, discussing his 2014 book The Necessity of Secularism: Why God Can’t Tell Us What to Do.

Bertha Vazquez announces three new TIES workshops: First at Birmingham Zoo in Alabama with Kathy Fournier on October 13; at the Illinois Science Teachers Association’s Annual Conference at Northern Illinois University with Kathy von Hoeck on October 28; and at the Mississippi Science Teachers Association Annual Conference in Biloxi on October 30 with Blake Touchet.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to both the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. The mission of CFI is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Visit CFI on the web at www.centerforinquiry.net.

]]>2017-06-28T14:50+00:00Cause &amp; Effect: The CFI Newsletter - No. 83http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_83/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_83/#When:14:41ZCause & Effect is the biweekly newsletter of the Center for Inquiry community, covering the wide range of work that you help make possible. Become a member today!

The Main Events

Point of Inquiry Returns with Guests Elizabeth Kolbert and Carl Pope

Point of Inquiry, the flagship podcast of the Center for Inquiry, returned this month with a new host and two new episodes both confronting the realities of humanity’s responsibility for the warming of our planet.

On June 1, President Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, focusing energy and attention on the issue of climate change like never before. (See CFI’s official response here, in which we condemn the president for turning the U.S. into a “rogue state.”) So the very next day, Point of Inquiry’s new host Paul Fidalgo spoke to leading environmental activist Carl Pope about what happens next. Formerly the executive director of the Sierra Club, Pope is the coauthor of the optimistic new book Climate of Hope, written with Michael Bloomberg, which makes the case that the window for stopping climate change has not yet closed, and that cities, states, and businesses can make enormous (and economically beneficial) strides toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving the planet.

Then, on the latest episode, Paul welcomes New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert to provide a very different perspective. As the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert has a deep understanding of what humans have wrought upon the Earth and its ecosystem, and the equally ugly politics that enable and obstruct meaningful action. Paul and Kolbert consider the ways we talk and think about climate change and how our society must come to grips with the inevitable disruptions in a world that will definitely get warmer. The question now is, can we stop it from getting worse?

As a special bonus, this episode also features a sort of “exit interview” with outgoing Point of Inquiry producer Nora Hurley. She and Paul chat about what the show has meant to them and what’s coming next for Nora, who, as she put it, is “packin’ my bags and movin’ to the Big City!”

After a busy start, the new Point of Inquiry plans for episodes to be released on a monthly basis. So, look forward to more, coming in July!

Attack of the Fire-Breathing Dinosaurs in Skeptical Inquirer

The latest issue of Skeptical Inquirer takes on the hot-button topic of fire-breathing dinosaurs. No, really!

For a young-Earth creationist, it’s very difficult to explain how the world could be a mere 6,000 years old when literally all evidence tells us for a fact that the world is about 4.5 billion years old. So creationists take the ample evidence of prehistoric beasts such as dinosaurs and claim that these creatures lived alongside human beings just before Noah’s flood. To lend credence to this absurd idea, some have speculated that myths and legends about dragons, which appear in cultures all around the world, are inspired by humans’ direct contact with dinosaurs. In fact, say some creationist thinkers, it may very well be that, like the dragons of stories, some dinosaurs were able to breathe fire. You see?

In Skeptical Inquirer’s cover feature, Fayetteville University paleontologist Philip J. Senter takes the creationists’ arguments on their merits to see if there is any physiological plausibility to the idea that fire-breathing dinosaurs could have ever existed. Maybe the dinosaurs ignited methane, emitted “pyrophoric gas,” or even had electrical organs like eels! Alas, simple scientific realities make it clear that any of these ideas only end very badly for the flame-throwing beast in question. But as ridiculous as it is, the exploration of how it might be done is both amusing and enlightening.

Also in the July/August issue, James Randi exposes the sham autism therapy of “facilitated communication”; Sébastian Point reveals the dangers of pseudoscientific “chromotherapy”; Matthew Nisbet critiques the politicization of the March for Science; and a whole lot more. Subscribe to Skeptical Inquirer today, in print or on your favorite mobile platform.

Religious Exemptions Go Too Far, from Walgreens to the White House

This month, the Center for Inquiry responded to two instances of women’s health and the rule of law being superseded by the religious beliefs of someone in a position in authority: one national, one local, and both unacceptable.

Two weeks ago, a draft regulation from the Trump administration was leaked, a regulation granting unreasonably broad exemptions to the contraceptive coverage mandate of the Affordable Care Act, allowing any corporation—religious or not—to claim a religious exemption to providing contraception under employer-sponsored health insurance plans. This goes far beyond even the religious allowances granted by the poorly decided Hobby Lobby case, which was at least limited to “closely held” religious businesses and nonprofits. Now, any employer can claim this exemption from the law.

CFI Legal Director Nick Little said in our statement, “If this draft regulation goes into effect, the rights of women to receive much needed zero cost preventive care would depend on the religious whims of their employer.” And our President and CEO Robyn Blumner called out Trump for his blatant coddling of the extreme religious conservatives who helped elect him. “Allowing employers to impose their religious dogma through workplace rules is one way to payback the religious right.”

Last week, the ACLU took up the case of a mother and daughter who were discriminated against by a Walgreen’s pharmacist. Looking to have a valid birth control prescription filled, the pharmacist refused service, claiming that doing so would violate his religious beliefs. “A pharmacist’s job is to protect a patient’s health, not to concern themselves with a patient’s soul,” said Nick in our official response. “A community places its trust in the scientific integrity of a pharmacist’s counsel, but this pharmacist chose to reject their vital medical role and arrogantly assume the authority of clergy.”

News from the CFI Community

Employment Opportunity: Web Content Coordinator

CFI is looking to hire a Web Content Coordinator to develop, maintain, organize, and add content to its websites and migrate content to Wordpress. You may also be asked to work on web-based marketing campaigns. This is an entry-level, full-time position located at CFI–Transnational in Amherst, NY. (No remote workers or freelancers need apply.)

Get Away from It All with a Secular Summer Retreat in Michigan

If there has ever been a time to blow off some steam, it’s the summer of 2017, and CFI Michigan has just the thing. (And you don’t have to be from Michigan to take part!) Enjoy group activities, great food, and the beautiful outdoors, all in the company of a lot of great people with the 2017 CFI Michigan Secular Summer Retreat, July 14–16!

Fun activities will include games, bonfires by the lake, a giant Slip-n-Slide, hiking, biking, canoeing, kayaking, and a whole lot more, all at the beautiful historic campground at the Long Lake Outdoor Center near Hastings, Michigan. Registration ends June 30, so sign up now!

Get Psyched for CSICon!

CSICon 2017, the biggest skeptics’ event of the year, is coming October 26–29 in the City of Illusions, Las Vegas! Have you registered yet?

The lineup of speakers is simply astounding, with luminaries such as James Randi, Richard Dawkins, Eugenie Scott, Cara Santa Maria, Michael Mann, Richard Wiseman, Lawrence Krauss, Massimo Polidoro, Carrie Poppy, and once again serving as master of ceremonies, the hilarious George Hrab.

All the action takes place at the fantastical Excalibur Hotel and Casino, where you’ll also experience a Tournament of Kings Joust Dinner, a magic show by Banachek, special lunch events with skeptic stars, a Halloween 70’s Disco Party, a Sunday Papers session, and more.

Now is the time for a conference dedicated to science and reason…one that will also be incredibly fun. Get registered now, and we’ll see you in Vegas.

CFI Highlights on the Web

Robert Blaskiewicz examines the tangled web of rumors and lies that make up the conspiracy theories surrounding the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich. Robert says, “It seems clear that the right wing media would rather talk about anything other than the unfolding extinction event at the White House.”

Benjamin Radford evaluates the claim that the mythical chupacabra monster has its roots in the real bird species of the same name, also known as the European nightjar...and it all revolves around the term goat-sucker.

Is there any merit to the spinal manipulation therapy of chiropractors? “Skepdoc” Harriet Hall considers the question and offers sound, skeptical advice as to what to look for when seeking a professional to crack your back.

Joe Nickell shows off another part of his collection of classic snake oil: Yet another cure-all called florida water, which was neither water nor a product of Florida. You can probably guess what it was: alcohol.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to both the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. The mission of CFI is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Visit CFI on the web at www.centerforinquiry.net.

]]>2017-06-14T14:41+00:00Cause &amp; Effect: The CFI Newsletter - No. 82http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_82/
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/news/cause_effect_82/#When:15:57ZCause & Effect is the biweekly newsletter of the Center for Inquiry community, covering the wide range of work that you help make possible. Become a member today!

The Main Events

All Evidence Points to an Amazing CSICon 2017

Have you registered for CSICon 2017 in Las Vegas, taking place October 26–29? It’s shaping up to be the biggest and best skeptics’ event of the year. That’s a pretty bold prediction, but the evidence is overwhelming.

First, there’s the incredible lineup of speakers. Rarely have so many leading lights of science and reason been part of the same event. A veritable constellation of skeptic luminaries will be presenting at CSICon 2017, representing the sciences, grassroots activism, journalism and media, the arts, and more. James Randi, Richard Dawkins, Eugenie Scott, Richard Wiseman, Cara Santa Maria, Lawrence Krauss, and Lindsay Beyerstein are just a small sampling of the dozens of skeptic leaders coming to CSICon.

Then there’s the entertainment and social events, because it wouldn’t be CSICon Las Vegas without plenty of fun. Taking place in the fantastical Excalibur Hotel, get ready for the Tournament of Kings Joust Dinner, a magic show by Banachek, special lunch events with skeptic stars, a Halloween 70’s Disco Party, and more. Plus, all of CSICon’s ceremonies will be mastered by comic-musician George Hrab. The full schedule has now been posted online.

That’s not all. It was just announced that New Yorker writer Maria Konnikova will receive the 2016 Balles Prize in Critical Thinking for her book The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It…Every Time, a book that exposes the tricks of the con artists’ trade and explains why all of us are vulnerable to being taken in, including skeptics. Konnikova will be at CSICon to accept her prize and to deliver yet another fascinating presentation.

Need more? To give you an idea of what’s in store for CSICon 2017, take a look back at CSICon 2016 on CFI’s web series Reasonable Talk. The current season is featuring some of the best presentations from CSICon 2016, with Maria Konnikova’s talk and Jamy Ian Swiss’s conversation with Richard Dawkins available to watch right now, with more on the way.

We think we’ve made our case. But to make it all come together, we need you! Register now, come together with the skeptic community, get inspired, and have a blast at CSICon 2017. See you in Vegas.

Thousands Inspired by Richard Dawkins and Friends

Richard Dawkins has just completed a successful tour of four U.S. cities, delighting, challenging, and inspiring the minds of the thousands who came out to see him in conversation with truly special guests—and all to support the work that you help make possible with the Center for Inquiry.

In Los Angeles, Dawkins took the stage with satirist Adam Felber, best known for appearances on NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and as a writer for shows such as Real Time with Bill Maher. Nearly 900 people filled the Alex Theatre, aided by the great team at CFI Los Angeles.

Next up was Boulder, Colorado, where the audience was charmed by the conversation between Dawkins and special guest Annabelle Gurwitch, a bestselling author, TV personality, and the latest celebrity to tell her story for the Openly Secular campaign. You can see from the picture on the right, there was one young lady who was particularly excited to see Richard Dawkins in person. Gurwitch took the picture and tweeted, “Hope for the future!”

Then it was off to the nation’s capital, where CFI DC hosted Dawkins and fellow evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne, bestselling author of Why Evolution Is True. CFI board member Brian Engler performed his valuable service, taking a set of excellent photos of this meeting of two great scientific minds.

While in Washington, DC, Dawkins was invited to have a conversation on NPR’s Weekend Edition with host Scott Simon, in which the two discussed recent news, perceptions of atheism, and even CFI’s crucial Secular Rescue program, which works to bring secular writers and activists to safety when their lives are threatened in countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The last stop was Miami, where attendees were presented with a pairing that almost no one could have predicted: Richard Dawkins and the Pulitzer Prize–winning humorist Dave Barry. What a treat it must have been to be in the room for this exchange of insights and observations.

Amanda Knox, Nick Little, and Religious Privilege

You probably know Amanda Knox as the woman imprisoned for years in Italy for murder, for which she was exonerated by the Italian Supreme Court. Today, she is a journalist and activist for the wrongfully convicted, and she recently wrote a major report for VICE in which she exposes the use of religion in prisons as the only available path to rehabilitation, which manipulates inmates into indoctrination.

For a legal perspective, Knox sought the insight of CFI’s General Counsel Nick Little. Nick describes how prisons are predisposed to allow access to prisoners by all manner of faith-based figures but frequently put up barriers when it comes to secular influences. “[Prison officials] know that they have to allow all prisoners access to a Bible and to the Quran. But they never consider that prisoners who aren’t religious may want access to a non-religious book in the same way,” Nick tells her. “It’s a problem that a Catholic who wants someone to talk to never faces. They always have access to somebody of their faith background. And that’s not available to humanist prisoners.”

Meanwhile, wholly by coincidence, Nick’s commentary was also featured by another writer at VICE, Gabby Bess, who reports on a case in which doctors in Michigan who performed female genital mutilation procedures on seven-year-olds are using religious liberty as a defense.

Nick explains that there exists no constitutional right to be exempt from generally applicable laws because of one’s religious beliefs, but that the Hobby Lobby case and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act have blurred the lines. “However,” adds Nick, “this would be a major step further, to allow direct harm to a child.”

Secular Celebrants Trained in Michigan

A group of nine enthusiastic and community-minded freethinkers successfully completed their training as Secular Celebrants on May 13, when CFI Michigan hosted Reba Boyd Wooden, director of CFI Indiana and head of the CFI Secular Celebrant program.

The trainees will now be expected to complete some additional requirements, and once they do, they will be officially certified to represent the Center for Inquiry as Secular Celebrants, authorized to perform marriages and officiate at many other milestone events in which it is desired that the secular humanist life stance be represented.

After two recent groundbreaking court victories, CFI Secular Celebrants are now able to solemnize marriages in Indiana and Illinois, and earlier this month, the state of Oregon enacted a new law authorizing the same. You can listen to CFI Portland’s Dani Tofte discuss this issue on Jefferson Public Radio.

CFI continues to seek out opportunities to change state laws that prevent those who wish to be married by an officiant who shares their secular worldview from having that opportunity. For example, CFI Northeast Ohio is supporting legislation in that state, introduced by State Sen. Michael Skindell.

Eight of the class were Michigan natives, and one came all the way from Ohio. Congratulations to all. Click here if you’re interested in becoming a CFI Secular Celebrant yourself!

CFI Highlights on the Web and in the Media

In a special report for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, Benjamin Radford looks into the “moral panic” over what seems to be a wholly fictional phenomenon: The “Blue Whale Game,” which is alleged to instruct teenagers to commit suicide.

Major advancements in life-enhancing and life-extending biotechnology bring with them difficult ethical questions we are obligated to address. In a new essay at HuffPost, CFI’s Ronald Lindsay says religious morality is not equipped for this task.

In the Sun-Sentinel, Rabbi Barry Silver discusses his opposition to the National Day of Prayer and support of the National Day of Reason as an alternative, noting CFI’s role in its creation.

What the heck is a “globster”? Joe Nickell explains what’s behind “great decaying masses” that wash up on shores and seem to be horrible sea monsters.

Joe also discusses his investigations about sightings of moa, an extinct New Zealand creature that resembles a kind of monster-ostrich.

The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research organization headquartered in Amherst, New York, with executive offices in Washington, D.C. It is also home to both the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science. The mission of CFI is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. Visit CFI on the web at www.centerforinquiry.net.